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466 INDUSTRIE
the Union of South Africa. These also lie partly on or near the Equator, and therefore
have a hot climate and sometimes the same heavy rainfall as New Guinea. The
interior is in the coastal areas of West Africa and in French Equatorial Africa and
the equatorial strip of Belgian Congo covered with impenetrable tropical forests;
here too the transport problem is difficult to solve; the population is in a few cases
as sparse as in New Guinea; there is a serious labour shortage; the natives are in
a very low stage of civilization; their zest for work and efforts towards greater
economic development are by no means excessive. Here too, an improvement
can only be brought about by the initiative of the Government and private
concerns and traders.
Some figures are given below for purposes of demographic comparison:
In some of these countries the density of population varies little from that of
Netherlands New Guinea, which may be put at 2 per sq. km, especially if it is
considered that in Nigeria and the Gold and Ivory Coasts the average figure is
high on account of the densely populated coastal areas.
Conclusion. The writers conclude that there are some possibilities for the gradual
establishment of smaller industries in New Guinea even though this will take
a long time. It will be necessary to make financial sacrifices, a long term development
plan will have to be drawn up, in many cases the Government will have to
take the initiative and lend a helping hand, especially as regards instructing and
training the population, and it will have to create a climate favourable enough (lower
taxes) to induce private capital to interest itself in the country. More cooperation with
Australian New Guinea seems logical with a view to the small home market on each
half of the island. Export industries rank second as compared to those supplying
the island itself. Initial assistance by temporarily increasing the import duty on
the manufactured article or still better by fixing reduced import quota's is being